12:30–2pm, Sunday 26 April
St. Michael's Church
Market Place, Macclesfield
We live in an age where apathy is slowly taking over our country, leaving us with an electorate increasingly disengaged with the democratic process. A world where people are more willing to vote for their favourite reality TV contestant than those who decide how much tax they pay.
Yet we are facing one of the most uncertain general elections in forty years – Now, more than ever, people must recognise the importance of their votes. We hope to encourage engagement with the political process by making it a bit more interesting…With the help of a great man.
Charles Roe was a prominent industrialist, credited with bringing the silk industry to Macclesfield, whose name adorns buildings and streets around town as a result of his outsized impact on Macclesfield. He celebrates his 300th birthday on 7 May 2015, the very same day that Britons will be heading to the polls. As a man who invested a great deal in Macclesfield, we felt he would have a considerable interest in the policies and positions of those standing to represent the town in Parliament. For that reason, we’ve brought him back from the dead to question Macclesfield’s parliamentary candidates on several key local issues.
Portrayed by local thespian David Wilkinson, Mr. Roe will provide a unique historical perspective, showing audiences that the concerns of his time were not so different from the issues that we consider crucial today.
We have created a list of questions covering a range of issues of interest to local residents. Each question will be put to all candidates in turn, and they will each be given an equal amount of time to respond before we move on to the next question. To ensure we cover the most ground in the available time, we will not be inviting candidates to debate one another or audience members on any of their answers, but many will be available after the event in the churchyard should you wish to question them further on any responses.
The final third of the event will consist of Mr. Roe posing questions from the general public. These will be questions that you can either submit in advance (by e-mailing judeATentropyevents.com, replacing ‘AT’ with ‘@’) or submit during the event on cards that will be left on seats for that purpose. Once again, each question will be put to all candidates in turn. We will get through as many as we can in the available time.